Now Henman flies past Roddick

The front cover of the official programme for the semi-finals of the Paris Masters yesterday featured a photograph of Tim Henman and the headline: "On Her Majesty's Service". The 29-year-old from Oxfordshire did Her Majesty proud, defeating the super-serving Andy Roddick, the new world No 1, on an indoor court that had been alien territory until this week.

Today Henman has an opportunity to end a disappointing season in style by winning the most prestigious title of his career. Having fallen short in two previous Masters Series finals - one step below Wimbledon and the three other Grand Slam tournaments - the British No 1 will start favourite today against the Czech, Jiri Novak, or Andrei Pavel, of Romania.

The worry for Henman's supporters is that he will allow tension to creep into his game against a less glamorous opponent. So far Henman has flowed freely against four top 20 players, including Roddick, the US Open champion, Roger Federer, the Wimbledon champion, Gustavo Kuerten, a three-times French Open champion, and Sebastien Grosjean, who ruined his grass court season at Queen's and Wimbledon.

Henman's achievement in overcoming the 21-year-old Roddick yesterday, 7-6 7-6 after two hours, demonstrated the power of relaxed determination. Having competed in the Paris Masters every year since 1996 without progressing beyond the third round, Henman had developed a phobia about the tournament. That is why he booked the Centre Court for a three-hour practice session last Sunday. He probably played sharper in some of the contests leading to Roddick, but the fact is that he beat the game's most feared server in two shoot-outs.

Roddick, who had described Henman as "an underrated athlete," knew from experience how competitive the Englishman can be. Henman was the only player to defeat him during the summer hard-court season in America. Roddick made amends for that loss in Washington DC by beating him in straight sets in the first round of the US Open.

Since then, Roddick has confirmed himself as the leader of a new generation of champions, and Henman has tried to play without pressure, restoring pace to his serve and improving his ranking for next year's campaign. He arrived in Paris ranked No 31 and is guaranteed to be well inside the top 20 whatever today's result.

Yesterday his blocked returns against the Roddick serve enabled him to break in the opening game. Roddick responded by attacking Henman, who saved a break point in the sixth game and three more in the eighth, but crumbled when serving for the set at 5-4. That game, in which Henman was broken to love, was reminiscent of his old habit of playing one dodgy service game in every set. This time, encouragingly, he went on to win the first tie-break 7-4. Roddick voiced his frustration and was warned for an audible obscenity.

Henman continued to play with authority in the second set, some of his touches drawing cheers from the 14,000 spectators. His first of six match points arrived with Roddick serving at 4-5, 30-40. The American saved it with a backhand half-volley. Although Henman netted a forehand in the first point of the second tie-break, his recovery was swift. He won the next five points, which enabled him to double-fault to 5-3 without losing impetus until he created three more match points at 6-3. Roddick saved those, and another at 6-7, before Henman closed the match out, 9-7.